How fun would Christmas shopping be if I won the lottery?? (Seriously, follow the links–they are half the fun.)

My Big Sister Lois would get a yak, which was Rachel C’s great idea…

…and aHippopotamus For Christmas. Real ones. Complete with enclosures etc. And enough money that she could stay at home on The Funny Farm and play with creatures, her chainsaw, and shovel POO! to her heart’s content, instead of going to The Barn every day. (The Barn vs. the barn.)

All of the Pajari Girls would get pink guns. Because it’s ironic. And badass. Check out these Google pics of pink guns.

Mr. Wonderful would get a private plane so we could visit his family whenever he wanted. And Pine-Sol. The company.

BigGuy: A custom Harley, with all the accessories including Vance & Hines pipes. And maybe a sidecar, so we wouldn’t have to fight over who gets the next ride. Of course, he will have to quit working so he has time to give me more than 2 rides per summer.

We said our final goodbyes to Stinky on Friday, when it became apparent that the cancer was hurting too much for the pain meds, and he started throwing up. There are so many things I want to say about this gentle giant, but for once I’m pretty much speechless. Here’s to the world’s biggest lapdog, Mr. Stinky Droolface, aka: Harley the Mastiffosaurus Wrecks.

The following is a WordPress Gallery, which is a fancy, foofy name for a slideshow. Click on any image to start.

It was so fun to bring people up Lois and Steve’s driveway and watch their faces when Stinky came to investigate. “What the HELL is that??” they’d ask.

Like this:

“Gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive. The experience of gratitude has historically been a focus of several world religions, and has been considered extensively by moral philosophers…” . -Wikipedia. (Link below.)

Bella Llama, Jade & Lois at The Funny Farm.

This is Jade. Her mom, our friend Danielle, has been posting what she is grateful for on Facebook:

“Today miss Jade is Thankful for her new kitten (which she does not have) Mickey Mouse books, Duluth and Curious George.”

“Jade is thankful for mama fixing, Mister her best friend and yummy cheesy sandwiches and dancey dance party.”

“Today Miss Jade is thankful for her mama and warm blankies and care bears and seeing the sunny side.”

I love that she is teaching Jade from a very young age about the importance of gratitude. It reminded me of a tool my friend Colleen gave me 19 years ago to battle depression: The Gratitude ABC’s. Start with “A” and name things you are grateful for. At first, I thought it was hokey. I was too cerebral for a simple thing like this to help. Besides, my life sucked. Thankfully, it sucked enough that I was willing to try anything.

Soon after, I taught the “game” to my kids. It was another way to keep their fighting to a minimum, while trying to prevent them from the deep depression I have struggled with ever since I can remember. Hard to say if it worked on them –sometimes all you can do is plant the seeds and hope they grow. But it has certainly worked for me. Prozac helps too. So did therapy and a support group. Good friends, family, writing, reading, talking…..it all helps. They are all great tools. But since Thanksgiving is just a few days away, I wanted to remind myself (and you) that gratitude, practiced daily, makes us feel happier & healthier.

If you don’t believe me, see the complete definition here on Wikipedia! (“W” is for Wikipedia).

Happy Thanksgiving! Loveyabye.

PS: If you didn’t hate this post, or if it made you the tiniest bit more grateful, please like, share or comment. I’d be ever so grateful. ;P

A couple of weeks ago, my boyfriend Paul and I traveled to North Dakota for the funeral of his grandpa. I never got to meet him, but I enjoyed hearing all the family memories and seeing pictures of his life (and his beautiful guitar). It got me thinking about my own grandparents, who are all gone now.

I suppose every family has secrets, and drama, and feuds. But today, I want to share some good memories of my maternal grandfather, Ralph Peterson.

Good things I remember:

He was 6’4″. To this day, when I have to calculate the size of something I picture how many Grampas end-to-end. (60 feet=10 Grampas.)

He drove a school bus. Nearly everyone in Cook rode this bus. He parked it in the basement of the house he built–the house I’ve raised my kids in, too. Everybody who goes to the Cook end of Lake Vermilion has seen this house. It’s kind of a landmark. We used to sit on the stone steps and wave to the tourists.

He had one lung (tuberculosis took one), and one kidney (cancer, I think).

He built wagons for Lois and I. (He and Gramma Marge cared for us while our parents worked.) These wagons had brakes and steering, and went like hell down the gravel pit banks.

At his house, there was a plastic school bus toy, a life-sized doll with red hair, and four million National Geographic magazines.

He let me have Hamburger Soup (Campbell’s Sirloin Burger) anytime I wanted, and gave me all his little hamburgers.

He drove his green Ford pickup SLOWLY because it took less gas, (he remembered rationing well) and had a whisk broom in it to sweep out the sand.

He smiled a LOT.

He liked to grow things. My garden is now in the same spot, and the apple and plum trees, asparagus, and chives feed our family to this day. Many of his perennial flowers are still here, too: tiger lilies, campanula glomerata, rugosa roses, and lilacs.

His brother Uno lived next door in their parents’ original homestead (The Funny Farm), where my sister lives now). Uno was housebound with severe Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Grampa maintained that place, too. We’d visit Uncle Uno several times a day, driving through the gravel pit that’s between the homes. We got to ride in the back of the truck sometimes, since we weren’t going on the highway. Sometimes we walked the deer trails through the woods to get there also. My kids have run those trails too, and I love the continuity that comes with living here.

This is a WordPress Gallery of my favorite pictures of Grampa Ralph. Clicking on any picture will start a slide show, but I recommend starting at the beginning. Here’s another gallery of green things I found while we were hunting on Sunday.

The bookshelf that housed the National Geographics, and the windows where all my houseplants are today. See Lois?

Honestly, not sure that’s him. Might be one of his brothers.

Om nom nom.

Why he drove so slowly?

I wonder whose feet those are dangling off the truck…

Mugging for the camera.

In front of the lilac that is still out my back door. I can’t get it to bloom like that, though.

He’s the tall one. He is ALWAYS the tall one.

Grampa Ralph walking to The Farm.

Me and Grampa, at The Farm.

He would probably hate it that we decorate so much for Halloween.

He built this wall and steps and house. The basement is all stone, too!

Thanks for the pie apples, Grampa.

A lot of the pit was sold for gravel, but there’s still plenty of room to play. The trails are still there 🙂

I remember panicking when Grampa told me that the big pines were dying. Thank goodness he was wrong. These trees have watched four generations of us silly humans live here.

I’d love to hear your stories about my Grampa or yours… Like, share, or comment if you enjoyed this. Pleeeease?

The Weekly Photo Challenge was a color: green. Usually the predominant color in Northern MN this time of year is white, but today it was 52 degrees. ABOVE zero. (And yes, that’s in degrees Farenheit, Bill L. from California.) That’s 20 degrees warmer than average. 🙂
Click on any thumbnail to start Gallery View.

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Today promises the wonder of great things to come! I have finished the bare minimum for keeping my rabbits until my hutch is built. Because I was told I need to get the rabbits this week I will be keeping the rabbits in pairs in the grow cages until further notice. These are substantially sized, but not as substantial as I’d like for the rabbits but they should only be there for a week, tops. If nessicary I can divide the crates into two sections each giving me four individual spaces for the rabbits. The upside is that technically even like this the rabbits have “enough” space and they’ll be used to the conditions they’re going into. The down side? That’s a 2’X3′ space each, or industry standard. Not adequate for the health of the four animals on which I am betting my money. These cages were not designed to be divided or hold fully…